A very interesting church architecturally and capturing this historic place of worship. The Anglican church in Hillsborough is unique for its incredible architecture. The building, designed by J.T.C McKean, was built in a mixture of styles, blending Queen Anne Revival, Shingle, and even Gothic Revival architectural styles together to create something unique.
An interesting aspect of this church is its little hanging bell tower. The bell sits on a little frame cantilevered off the front gable, covered by an extended overhang of the eave. We've seen one other like it that we can remember, clear on the other side of the country, in Sorrento, British Columbia. We believe that was also an Anglican Church. We just checked. Talk about coincidence - that church, as well, is
Saint Mary's Anglican Church.
Altogether, though, this church is a pleasure to visit, both inside and out. It's the type of building one could gaze upon at length because of its nonconformist architecture outside and the obvious craftsmanship displayed on the inside.
Incidentally, the church is surrounded by a small cemetery with a handful of old headstones within. In the cemetery are two of the church's founders and a few of the old timers of Hillsborough.
Described by some as Gothic, St. Mary's stands as an unequalled specimen of Victorian ecclesiastic architecture. The west face of the church presents a chalet-like appearance, but rounding the southwest corner to the jutting vestibule entrance, its side-one character defies categorization. The high pitched wood-shingled wall give way to a gently sloped roof and extended shingle walls on either side. Strolling around the outside of the church, one discovers interesting details of obvious painstaking work. Well worn stone walkways and steps leading to the entrance. The old doors and wrought iron railings, ample red stained trim at the corners and around the windows and doors; the scalloped wood trim atop the roof. The carvings of cherubim barely visible to the eye carved near the roofline. Behind the church and along the river side, are several tombstones, two of which bear the surnames of principle founders ----Osman and Tomkins.
HISTORY:
In 1886, three Hillsborough businessmen tried to raise money to erect an Anglican Church in the heart of Albert County's Baptist belt.
Charles J. Osman of the Albert Manufacturing Company; G.A. Robinson, manager of the Albert and Salisbury Railway; and H. Middleton, manager of the Hillsborough Bank; made a valiant effort, but fell short. Osman's wealthy father-in-law Joseph Tomkins, the original manager of the gypsum mine in Hillsborough got involved. Calvin Tomkins, Joseph's father of New York, had purchased many of the Albert County gypsum sites in 1854 and organized the Albert Manufacturing Company, the forerunner of the Canadian Gypsum Company. The 1889 deed for the one-fifth acre of land presented by Joseph Tomkins to the Anglican Bishop in Fredericton, three years after the church was built, stated the church was built as a memorial to his late wife.
ANECDOTES:
Rank had its privilege at St. Mary's. Joseph Tomkins not only had his own reserved pew in the back row of the church, but also a custom-built fireplace in front of his pew and a heavy curtain to draw and segregate himself from the rest of the congregation. Here, during a winter Sunday's liturgy and sermon, Tomkins could smoke his pipe or fall asleep in front of the blazing logs at will; and no one else in church would be any wiser. (The wide, open-hearth fireplace and a heavy curtain on its thick round wooden rod are still in place.)
From Saint Mary's
Saint Mary's Anglican Church
DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE
Saint Mary’s Anglican Church is a two-storey church in a rural interpretation of the Shingle and Queen Anne Revival styles. The unusually prominent chimney replaces a more traditional steeple. It is located in a rural setting on Mill Street in Hillsborough.
HERITAGE VALUE
Saint Mary’s Anglican Church is historically significant as a symbol of the development of the Anglican Church in Hillsborough. The Church of England has always been closely associated with ‘King and Country’. Being an Anglican in Britain’s colonial empire was a social advantage. For instance, three quarters of the signers of the Declaration of Independence in America were members of the Church of England. However, what had been an advantage before the American Revolution became a huge disadvantage after the revolution. Thousands of Anglicans were forced to flee to Canada as United Empire Loyalist. In 1789, to avoid being tarred with the same brush as royalist sympathizers, the Church of England in the United States changed its name to the Episcopal Church. Anglican clergy held meetings in what is now Albert County as early as 1820, but it was not until 1861 that a congregation was established in Hillsborough. They met in various halls until 1886 when funds were raised to build a church of their own. When the initial funding proved insufficient the congregation turned to the Tompkins Family, who owned and managed the Albert Manufacturing Company, the area’s largest industry. Along with the needed funds, the Tompkins family provided suggestions on the interior design of the church.
Saint Mary’s Anglican Church is also recognized for its architecture. Completed in 1889, the exterior of the building was designed by J. T. C. McKean of the architectural firm McKean and Fairweather. This firm had designed the Saint John City Market, built in 1876. The domed ceiling and super structure of this market building has been compared to the overturned hull of a sailing ship. On a much smaller scale the ribbing and planking of the church’s ceiling convey the same impression. Adding to this nautical theme, the stained-glass bowed end of the church resembles the fantail, where, in a sailing ship, the captain’s cabin is located. However, having the rounded apse and the wings of the transepts at the opposite end of the nave from the altar is a reversal of traditional interior church orientation. This special place incorporates many different architectural elements and blends them together so smoothly that it has a style uniquely its own. There are hints of the more traditional Gothic Revival style layout and window shapes, but without the pretentious gloomy details. The usual glitter of the Queen Anne Revival style is tapered by the more rural Shingle elements. The church even teases its own liturgical purpose. Why bother with the traditional church steeple when, in our country, the answer to most prayers is just to be warm? What better way to symbolize warmth in a church than by making the steeple a chimney.
In the small grave yard behind the church are located the tombstones of the first four managers of the Albert Manufacturing Company, indicating that the influence of the Tompkins Family lingered long after their passing.
This church, the ‘Elegant Lady of Mill Street’, still welcomes her devout and devoted flock each Sunday, just as she has for the last one hundred and twelve years.
CHARACTER-DEFINING ELEMENTS
- irregular two-storey massing with a suggestion of a traditional Gothic Revival layout;
- rounded apse and transepts located opposite the altar;
- steeply-pitched gable roof;
- open belfry supported by knee braces in the gable end;
- ornamental cresting along peak of roof;
- copper finials;
- wooden cross finials;
- gable-roofed dormer over the southwest entrance vestibule;
- unpainted shingled roof and exterior walls;
- trefoil stained glass windows with diamond-shaped tracery;
- stained glass lancet windows with tracery and small inset rose windows;
- large flared red-brick chimney with a fireplace;
- interior woodwork and pews;
- ribbing and planking of the ceiling resembling the overturned hull of a ship.
From Historic Places Canada